I just registered so that I could post some theories that have tumbling around my head for a while.

The first...

Charlie is popping archons exclusively because he is collecting archons with a special that is unknown to us.

We are told that when archons pop, they gain a special randomly from a list. What if the list is incomplete? What if there are more possible specials, but they occur less frequently than the ones we have been told about?

Supporting this idea is that Charlie has a special group of archons who stay with him in the tower and are the only ones to have direct contact. In this scenario, Charlie is looking for this rare special or specials and so has optimized production to producing archons as quickly as possible.

The second...

Charlie and Stanley worked together to overthrow King Saline IV.

I am not sure why they would have, but Stanley seems to have a very personal dislike for Charlie, and Charlie has shown the ability to mess around with natural allies. So Chalie helped Stanley become an overlord, and then they had some sort of falling out.

This special would have to be one not gained through levelling, only innate at popping. Otherwise field archons would learn of it. Alternatively, any archon that levelled and obtained this would be removed from field service immediately, and the other archons' memories wiped, or, failing that, disbanded.

1. The Arkendish doesn't make Archons easier to pop, or pop them itself. It converts other Units, even perhaps stacks of them, into individual Archons. Had Parson accepted Charlie's offer to turn, he'd look quite different now.

This special would have to be one not gained through levelling, only innate at popping. Otherwise field archons would learn of it. Alternatively, any archon that levelled and obtained this would be removed from field service immediately, and the other archons' memories wiped, or, failing that, disbanded.

AND, no one other than Charlie who can pop archons has noticed this.

AND, archons' instinctive knowledge of themselves omits this.

It may not be one ability; it may be a combination of multiple specials. Why couldn't it be learned through leveling? We haven't seen anything that states that a field archon cannot be promoted to one Charlie's personal archons. I don't see why Charlie would have to wipe memories or disband units. Charlie has no reason to explain a transfer order, and while the archons may speculate, they don't ask questions.

Charlie has over 600 archons. This is probably many more than any other side in Erfworld. If the special or combination of specials is rare, the archons of other sides may not possess it or realize it's potential. Charlie is able to grant some of the abilities of the Arkendish to his personal archons. If the special(s) involved is/are what makes that possible, no other side could know since they don't possess the Arkendish. We also know that a 4-caster link is thought to be impossible. If anything can create a larger link, perhaps even a link with units other than casters, it would be the Arkendish. It is possible that Charlie is linking his personal archons through the Arkendish. So, while the unknown special(s) may not seem that impressive by itself/themselves, it/they can be quite valuable when combined. I have a personal theory that, at the end of the comic, the Arkendish will be used to link all the Attuned, and perhaps Parson, together to do...something. I really have no idea what, but I can't shake the feeling we'll see it.

We have also seen that various units' innate knowledge to be lacking. They know things, but not everything. They have facts, but they don't always see all the possibilities those facts reveal.

Of course, this is just speculation. At this point, it's simply a mystery, so speculation is all there is.

I also believe something like that is going on. The extreme need and care for secrecy, the refusal to use Warlords at all, even though they are extremely useful (just one Chief Warlord gives a bonus to EVERY unit on the side), the reliance on fully loyal units, that aren't even trusted to see him personally. All this mystery must mean there is something extraordinary about Charlie's existance. Maybe he's the Arkendish, maybe he's a puppet whom the Arkendish has enslaved, maybe he's left his body and he put his conscience into the dish, maybe he is more than one entity all linked together with the dish -- like a bunch of superior Archons?? --, there are so many possibilities.

My point is, I think there's a good chance Charlie is not a normal unit, not even a normal attuned unit.

Option 1: Charlie was the first summon to reach out into Stupidworld. He broke the rules, and broke away from what he was summoned for. Now that he has the dish, there's nothing tGMtTA can do about it..... aside from summon someone else. Once Parson goes Rogue, they summon another one.

Option 2: Charlie is the Jewish dude from Parson's gaming group. He arrived early and got to go ahead and test out his Akentool character. The others from the gaming group will be joining in one by one as the next three books unfold. He was just futzing around with the Dish, so Parson had to do a demo game to show him how it's done-- first mockingly with the power of the Arkenhammer, and then more in earnest with the power of the Arkenpliers.

Option 3: Charlie actually died a long time ago, but his personal guards keep the Arkendish running and maintain business contracts. He can't assign a CWL because there technically is no Ruler to do so. Archons are not going to out other Archons, and the dolls can't talk, so no information leaks.

Option 4: Charlie used to be an Archon, but upon discovering the Arkendish, developed unmatched Thinkamancy and was able to develop free will after tapping into the minds of Royalty and Warlords. She/he only pops other Archons in hopes that more will develop free will.

Option 5: Charlie actually read the books in the library, and discovered that if you have 1000 Archons, you can merge them into a gestalt psyche that creates a single SuperArchon, which has the ability to abjure opponent's leadership bonuses. The upkeep for that many Archons is simply impossible to attain due to upkeep costs and diminishing Schmucker returns. So, he reduced down to one city, stripped down anything he didn't absolutely need, and set up the telecom/mercenary business to increase his treasury. Losing those Archons over GK's airspace was a huge blow to his plan to get all 1000 Archons he needed.

Option 6: The Arkendish isn't actually one of the Arkentools. It was a device designed by Isaac, and stolen from the Magick Kingdom by Charlie. That's when they set up their death-dealing portals and set about their neutrality. Isaac wants his dish back. He's content to let people think the Dish is a Tool to ensure that he doesn't become as in demand as Charlie currently is for the telecom services. He'd rather develop new stuff to benefit just Thinkamancers than run a business.

Epileptic Twee incoming;Wild assumption: Archons count as a kind of commander unit.Wild assumption: Commanders produced in the capital count as the children of the ruler.Wild assumption: All current Archons were produced in Charlscoms capitol.Wild conclusion: All 600 Archons are Charlies kids.

_________________“I will tell you precisely what Royalty is,” said Intra, “It is a continuous cutting motion.”

The Arkendish is the satellite dish atop Charlescomm (Most of the arkentools so far have been things that saw little use in Erfworld or were tools highly indicative of the Earth world) and can tap into Grandiocosmic strings like a real satellite dish picks up on radio waves.

Charlie is a Thinkamancer (much like a Croakamancer was the one who could ultimately unlock the secrets of the arkenpliers), but he went rogue for some reason (possibly because he believes money to be more important than whatever secrets the The Great Thinktank decided to keep hidden). This would explain why the Thinkamancers hold him to be such a high threat (in addition to his use of the Arkendish itself).

Charlie only pops archons because like the Arkenhammer it grants him the ability to convert/enforce the loyalty of any Archon (in addition to his loss of secrets Charlie was emotionally distraught by the decryption of the archons because up until this point they have one and all loved him).

Deburau's son, Jean-Charles (or, as he preferred, "Charles" [1829–1873]), assumed Pierrot's blouse the year after his father's death, and he was praised for bringing Baptiste's agility to the role.[34] (Nadar's photographs of him in various poses are some of the best to come out of his studio—if not some of the best of the era.)[35]

But the most important Pierrot of mid-century was Charles-Dominique-Martin Legrand, known as Paul Legrand (1816–1898; see illustration at top of page). In 1839, Legrand made his debut at the Funambules as the lover Leander in the pantomimes, and when he began appearing as Pierrot, in 1845, he brought a new sensibility to the character. A mime whose talents were dramatic rather than acrobatic, Legrand helped steer the pantomime away from the old fabulous and knockabout world of fairy-land and into the realm of sentimental—often tearful—realism.[36] In this he was abetted by the novelist and journalist Champfleury, who set himself the task, in the 1840s, of writing "realistic" pantomimes.[37] Among the work he produced were Marquis Pierrot (1847), which offers a plausible explanation for Pierrot's powdered face (he begins working-life as a miller's assistant), and the Pantomime of the Attorney (1865), which casts Pierrot in the prosaic role of an attorney's clerk.

Charlie is the saddest clown. T.T

_________________“I will tell you precisely what Royalty is,” said Intra, “It is a continuous cutting motion.”

I don't know who he is or what, but I think I know what Charlie plans to do with Parson.

Parson is a Hippiemancer so Charlie will probably use the Arkendish to link him to a Turnamancer and/or a Carnymancer. The Arkendish seems to already be able to link casters over a distance, so it may be able to boost Thinkamancy to allow a link up with more than 2 other casters. Through either hacking the eyebooks or through his conversations with Parson, I think Charlie has realized the implications of Parson being from another universe. He may want to link Parson to the Arkendish and use his understanding of realtime physics to change the rules of Erfworld. Being the only one prepared for it, he will use strategically placed archons to take out leadership across Erfworld and bring all under his rule.

Well, this is only a theory but it does have that "new way to wage war" sort of plot twist that would mesh well with Erfworld's story.

I think that there are a lot of techniques to thinkamancy that have not been divulged to the general public of Erfworld. Like maybe that master class thinkamancers can read a unit's thoughts in addition to doing mild alterations of motive (Suggestion), or that a powerful thinkamancer can take over the thoughts of another unit and control them like a puppet. Given the usefulness of thinkamancers for communication, it stands to reason that most of the more powerful Rulers would have one on staff. Plant enough thinkamancers in key locations, and tGMtTA could subtle influence the entire world. The workings of the fundamentals of the universe are the privy knowledge of this select group, through their Nodes and Grandiocosmic Strings. Things go fine so long as a select group maintains control of this information. This same group controls at least half of Rulers, most communication, and almost everything else that goes on in the world.

Then comes Charlie with his toy artifact. Thinkagrams can be paid for by any side, and all he has to do is tinker with the grandiocosmic strings to learn most of the info that tGMtTA held as highly guarded secrets. Their little racket is on the verge of getting busted up.

In the Dream Team of Casters topic, most people would choose to either pop or hire a thinkamancer. There are a lot of thinkamancers in the MK, yet not many of the sides we have seen are using thinkamancers. GK has Maggie, TV has Bunny, Unaroyal had an unnamed thinkamancer (per book 1 page 138), and Haffaton had Maxwell. Not a lot of sides employing such utilitarianly useful casters.

I'm hoping we are intorduced to more sides, and at least some of them have thinkamancers. So far, though, it looks like Charlescomm and their pay per call thinkagrams have been putting a lot of thinkamancers out of a job. Maybe tGMtTA are like a union.

This special would have to be one not gained through levelling, only innate at popping. Otherwise field archons would learn of it. Alternatively, any archon that levelled and obtained this would be removed from field service immediately, and the other archons' memories wiped, or, failing that, disbanded.

AND, no one other than Charlie who can pop archons has noticed this.

AND, archons' instinctive knowledge of themselves omits this.

You can solve all those problems with one word. Carnamancy. Jojo has been in service to Charlie for some time now. Maybe he modified the Archon rules with an Arkendish linkup.

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